Trial scheduled for Port Orange man in 2 women's killings

A Port Orange man accused of killing two women, one of whom was found buried in his backyard, is scheduled to go to trial in December on two charges of first-degree murder.

JENNIFER EDWARDSSTAFF WRITER

DAYTONA BEACH — A Port Orange man accused of killing two women, one of whom was found buried in his backyard, is scheduled to go to trial in December on two charges of first-degree murder. James Lee Maxwell, 44, was already facing charges that he kidnapped and raped a 9-year-old neighbor in December 2011 after a holiday party when investigators got a tip about the body in his yard. That body turned out to belong to Chasity Starr, 27, a local prostitute whose family had reported her missing. Another body, that of Pamela Sue Will, was found later in a ditch near Maxwell's former employer. The two women vanished within months of each other in 2010 and 2011. Investigators believe Starr was murdered Jan. 15, 2011, police said, the day before Will's body was found in a muddy ditch near the building where Maxwell once worked. Will, 48, had been reported missing in September 2010. Starr's body was exhumed from Maxwell's yard in June. Will was found wrapped in plastic in a muddy ditch near International Trade Associates, an Ormond Beach business where Maxwell used to work. Port Orange police said both women were strangled inside Maxwell's home on Brandy Hills drive. The home is owned by his mother. Both women were known prostitutes. Maxwell pleaded guilty in 1988 to stabbing another prostitute, Cathryn Ann Carnes, in the heart. She lived, and he served a couple of years in prison but was later released. He racked up numerous other misdemeanors including possession of paraphernalia and other charges, before the new rape and murder charges. Police Chief Mike Chitwood said in August that police are also investigating whether Maxwell could be behind the murders of several other women, including Laquetta Gunther, Julie Green, Iwana Patton and Stacey Gage. No DNA links him to those women, he said, but because he was known to frequent the area they worked, he can't be ruled out as the city's serial killer. He is to go to trial on the murder charges Dec. 3.